More on the Jesus versus Christ contradiction in Christianity. “Jesus Christ” is history’s supreme oxymoron (contradicting merger of entire opposites- my definition), Wendell Krossa
(Intro Note: This is very much about what has been repeated often on this site. The military guy who said (2014 response to ISIS outbreak of violence to establish the Caliphate worldwide) that you can swat down such eruptions of violence with force but they will only continue to erupt until you go after the ideas that drive such violence, notably the religious ideas that incite and validate the religiously-motivated eruptions of violence, still common to the modern era.
The Historical Jesus insight that offered a stunning new theology of a non-retaliatory, unconditional God goes right to the root of the ideas issue/problem. It replaces humanity’s long-standing ultimate ideal of retaliatory, dominating, tribally-excluding, and punitive destruction theology… overturning that theology completely and replacing it with the stunning new ideal of no conditions love. There is no greater mental, emotional, or behavioral transformation offered to us anywhere in history. And that potentially most liberating and transformational insight ever, has been buried for two millennia under Paul’s Christ myth that re-affirmed retaliatory, dominating, tribally-excluding and punitive destruction theology. Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy back me on this argument.)
The true genius of the man “Historical Jesus” (a Palestinian wisdom sage) was far more than James Robinson’s statement that Jesus’ “greatest contribution to the history of human ideas was his stunning new theology of a non-retaliatory God”. Stated negatively, the Jesus insight said, “Let there be no more eye for eye retaliation because God does not retaliate against enemies.”
The positive side of “Jesus’ greatest contribution” was his insight that God was a reality of unconditional love toward all. “Instead of eye for eye, love your enemies because God does. God grants sun and rain to all, to both good and bad people”. There is nothing in the history of human thought or literature comparable to that singular insight. That is seriously TOE level stuff. The nature/character of the core of reality, that which creates and sustains all else.
That no conditions love insight points to an entirely non-religious reality because all religion across history has been fundamentally about religious conditions, conditions to placate and please highly conditional deities. You cannot mix/merge the unconditional God of Jesus with a conditional religion like Christianity- i.e. conditions of right beliefs, conditions of atonement/sacrifice, conditions of religious rituals and religious lifestyle as identity markers of true believers, etc.
Religion that, from its inception in the earliest human societies, has been a conditional reality or institution. The great “oxymoronic contradiction” is that religion claims to represent God to humanity. But by its very nature as a conditional institution, religion cannot present a supremely unconditional reality. Meaning, across history, religion has presented a false deity that distorts entirely human understanding of what deity actually is. Religion has always hid the true nature of God as unconditional love.
I hit this feature of unconditional because that is the central theme in the teaching of Historical Jesus (i.e. Prodigal Father, Vineyard owner, etc.), a feature that is now re-affirmed in the central discovery of the Near-Death Experience movement, the latest phase in the long history of human spirituality.
Christianity, especially, got all the main elements in Jesus’ teaching entirely backwards. Where Jesus had stated that God was a non-retaliatory deity (“No more eye for eye because God does not retaliate”) Paul re-affirmed God as a retaliatory deity. Paul expressed his theology in quoting an Old Testament statement, “’Vengeance is mine. I will repay,’ says the Lord”.
Other elements in this contradiction between Jesus and Paul’s Christ:
Where Jesus was put to death for protesting sacrifice (the Temple incident), Paul falsely presented him as the ultimate cosmic sacrifice for all sin.
Where Jesus presented a message of non-tribal inclusion of all (welcoming social outcasts into meals, telling stories of non-tribal inclusion- i.e. Elijah sent to heal a non-Jew, Samaritan honored, healing Centurion’s child, etc.), Paul re-affirmed religious tribal discrimination- i.e. believers in his Christ myth are “saved”, unbelievers destroyed (see Thessalonians, Romans, etc.).
Where Jesus urged non-domination (“Those who would be great must serve others”), Paul re-enforced domination with his “Lord Jesus” moniker and affirmation of domination/submission relationships (i.e. “wives submit to your husbands, slave submit to your masters, all submit to governing authorities”).
Such profound contradictions. You get the drift.
I would prefer some other term than “unconditional” as too much common use of this term orients many minds to something religious, mushy, and weak in face of evil, pacifist “turn other cheek” nonsense, something spineless in the face of bullying.
I try alternative tweaks like- “No conditions, absolutely none”. Whatever word/term works. Its what it points to that matters. Something transcendently wondrous beyond imagining. Hence, the NDE accounts speaking of a “Light” infinitely brighter than the sun that radiates that love.
A lot more on this to come….
Affirming the single most profound insight to have ever emerged out of a human mind and mouth– i.e. that the core of all reality is love, a stunningly inexpressible, transcendent love that is universally and ultimately “no conditions”, toward everyone. That was the central breakthrough insight of Historical Jesus, someone entirely opposite in person and message to Paul’s Christ myth (Paul’s oxymoronic merger of Jesus with Christ in his “Jesus Christ”, or “Lord Jesus”).
This on “The Unconditional Human Spirit” project, Wendell Krossa
The project here? To understand and outline the fundamental ideas/beliefs/ideals that have, across history, incited and validated our worst inherited animal impulses to tribal hatred and exclusion, to domination of others, and to punitive destruction of “enemies”, an “evil triad” of impulses representing the worst of being human. Because most people “base their behavior on their beliefs”, seeking meaning and validation for their lives, that makes it important to understand the nature of the ideas/beliefs/ideals in human worldviews.
And most critical in the mix of ideas that form our narratives- understand the most prominent of all ideas or beliefs, i.e. the image of God that people hold. The “theology” thing. Because “we all become just like the God that we believe in.” We become just like the Ultimate Ideal that centers our worldview or narrative.
The project here is about discovering an ultimate ideal that best counters the worst of the ideas that we have inherited from the major belief systems passed down to us from the past. Ideas/beliefs that have incited and validated the worst in us across history. It’s about finding and holding an ideal that counters and shuts down the worst of our animal impulses, that enables us to transcend such impulses with the human.
The ideas (listed below) are the worst of the worst because they deform entirely our understanding of reality and life (i.e. the myth of Declinism that is still the most dominant idea in the modern world- “life and the world becoming worse”). The list below is the “baddest of the bad” because they incite our worst impulses to abuse one another. Like the cosmic dualism and tribal loyalty impulse that many have used to validate violence against others as enemies, blinding us to the fundamental oneness of humanity.
Here again is the list of ideas/beliefs, and the “evil triad” theology that holds the primitive mess together (see full list at link).
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=13571#more-13571
“The original ‘bad religious ideas’ complex of themes that our ancestors constructed to shape their narratives”, Wendell Krossa
These are the more dominant ones that have shaped all narratives religious and now secular:
(1) The past was better and that raises the question of- If so, then what went wrong and who was to blame. If the past was a better world, then justice demands that the ruin and loss of that better world must be corrected. What has been ruined must be restored. Someone has to pay, be punished, etc. If it was created perfect then that is the biggest of all wrongs ever committed, eh.
(2) The myth that early pure humans committed an original error and subsequently became corrupted and ruined the original paradise world.
Original paradise ruined by early people sets off the “blame humanity” psychopathology. This myth starts the long history of anti-humanism, the demonization of humans as essentially “sinful”, corrupt, and the destroyers of the natural world. Few lies have been as damaging as this to human self-imaging.
(3) The myth of “Declinism” that dominates our modern era– detailed by Arthur Herman in “The Idea of Decline In Western History”.
The idea of decline argues that the trajectory of life declines toward a worsening state. Again, due to bad people.
Associated with the general declinism of all life: The myth that humanity is becoming worse, i.e. “Declinism” in humanity- the fallacy of “human degeneration” theory (again, see Herman in “The Idea of Decline”). This anti-human element has been beaten into human consciousness across history in religious narratives of original sinfulness (i.e. Adam “fall of man” mythology, fallen from a previous perfect state). This mythology deforms human consciousness with the fallacy that humanity, not only fucked up really bad at the start, but becomes worse over time.
(5) The myth of the final collapse and ending of life, the complete and final ruination of the world in “catastrophic apocalyptic destruction”. This is the fallacy of the apocalyptic destruction of all life as the final phase in the narrative of “original paradise ruined by humanity with life subsequently declining toward something worse as divine punishment, and cheer up because the worst is yet to come”.
The threat of divine retribution in the violently destructive ending of all life incites the human survival impulse to hysterical heights and that renders people susceptible to irrational salvation schemes where apocalyptic alarmists/prophets claim that the destruction of life and civilization is required to “save the world”- i.e. the demand to “violently purge evil enemies” in order to save your world, the horrific fallacy of “salvation promised through destruction”. This mythology validated Marxist revolutionary violence to overthrown industrial civilization, Nazi purging of “polluting Jews”, and now incites/validates environmental crusades to overturn industrial civilization.
(6) Salvation as some form of sacrifice/payment, notably salvation through the slaughter of humans and animals. (Again, Arthur Mendel’s point that apocalyptic millennial belief systems promise salvation coming via destruction/death.)
(7) The deforming of the “hero’s quest”. The myth of a divine demand to heroically engage a righteous battle against evil enemies that must be purged, even exterminated as irredeemably evil. People who are demonized as too corrupted, defiled, and existentially too threatening to life to allow them to continue living.
This derives from the Zoroastrian cosmic dualism myth (i.e. a Good God warring eternally against an Evil Force/Satan). Based on this cosmic dualism myth, early people believed that there was the follow-up divine demand to join the true religion of the true and good God (Ahura Mazda) and to fight the false religion of the false Spirit (Angra Mainyu). The Zoroastrian fallacy has fueled endless tribal enmity and conflict among people across history who frame their conflicts with their opponents in such irredeemably oppositional terms.
(8) The false carrot-stick hope stirred by the promise of fulfilled salvation in the restoration of a paradisal communalism/collectivism (Acts 2-4). Or salvation in a new utopia of a millennial kingdom (i.e. Nazism, Christianity). The same salvation is promised in the environmental vision of a return to the falsely imagined “strong, pure” existence of hunter-gatherers more connected to nature (Arthur Herman in “The Idea of Decline”, also “Hitler’s Millennial Reich” by David Redles).
The Ultimate Ideal, the “evil triad” theology that holds this complex together, is that of a “monster God” image framed by deity as (1) tribally exclusive (God favoring his true believers, damning unbelievers outside his tribe), (2) domination- God as Lord, King, Ruler in the line of the Platonic philosopher kings, the elite “enlightened” rulers who must dominate and control the society of ignorant commoners, and then (3) punitive destruction of enemies as “true justice”, the way to salvation.
These features shape Paul’s Christ myth as something entirely contrary to the actual message and life of Historical Jesus who was nontribal, nondomination, and advocated the nonpunitive treatment of enemies (no more “eye for eye”). No wonder he was buried in the Christ myth. He protested the main themes of all previous mythology and religion.
(End of “bad ideas list” comments)
Human narratives need an alternative core ideal that supports non-tribal universalism and inclusion, non-domination that respects the freedom and rights of all individuals, equally, and that supports non-vengeful, non-destructive treatment of opponents/enemies, what some call “restorative justice” as opposed to justice as punitive vengeance.
No one across history has gone so directly to the issue of the core ideal for human narratives, as effectively as Historical Jesus, the wisdom sage who was someone entirely opposite to the distorted reconstruction of him in Paul’s Christ myth.
Jesus went right to the central narrative ideal- the Mother of all ideals- the theology or God image that functions as the cohering center of all human narratives (the “ultimate reality” or ideal in “secular” narratives). Jesus presented his stunning new insight, that of unconditional love as the defining feature in an image of deity, entirely unlike any theology ever before imagined or spoken.
As always, the necessary qualifier when dealing with the term “unconditional”- It’s not the irresponsible pacifism of “suicidal empathy” in the face of brutality and violence. It’s not a prescriptive “divine law” for running a business or an economy. Its an ideal to aspire toward, an ideal of true humaneness, the highest reach of love, what inspires us to reach toward heroically mature humanity, where we tower in stature as maturely human.
The Jesus insight on deity is about how to shape human attitude with truly humane ideas/beliefs that then guide behavior toward responses/actions that do the least harm and the most good in life, especially in situations where life goes to hell, as in war. It’s about what we orient our minds to that then influences all else in us. How we feel, what motivates us, how we respond and act in our lives. How we treat others, especially enemies.
It’s about the singularly humane ideal that has fed into the stream of historical innovation and humanization of narratives across history that has led to the contemporary result of liberal democracy as the best way to organize human society and produce the most humane conditions for all humanity.
The Jesus ideal of unconditional inspires the best elements of our human nature, our humane impulses to universal inclusion, to treating all as equals as in respecting the freedom and rights of all individuals (self-determination, personal control of life).
His central insight on unconditional was buttressed with other elements such as the nature of true greatness in “serving others”. His ideas fed into the historical stream of more humane ideas descending down through history that eventually fed into the modern era development of government institutions oriented to serving citizens, constructed to preventing elites from lording over others.
And his unconditional insight fed into the promotion of truly restorative justice that restrains violent people as necessary to protect the innocent, but justice that is non-retributive and thereby helps us to maintain our own humanity in the face of evil.
Think through the varied potential impacts of holding “unconditional love” as the central human ideal shaping our narratives and lives. How that counters our long history of narratives centered around retaliatory, dominating, tribal deities, or related ultimate realities/ideals.
I refer to what psychologist Harold Ellens noted about the God image of Paul’s Christianity where that monstrous version of God solves problems with violence (i.e. killing his son as “substitutionary” retribution against human sin, and how that punishing of the innocent satisfies angry deity). As Ellens says, that deeply embedded image of God using violence incites/validates our use of violence toward others to solve problems.
Ellens rightly notes that such monstrous images of deity deform human personality and life. Think of the outcomes of such imagery in the validation of violence across history in crusades, inquisitions, persecution of heretics/witches, religious wars, etc. Incalculable misery, suffering, and death.
With the Jesus theology, the stunning new divine image of unconditionally loving God, you get no more validation for tribal hatred of differing others, no validation of domination or punitive destruction of enemies. If you want to continue nursing and feeding such impulses, then with the theology of Historical Jesus you are on your own in terms of divine validation. You no longer have a God backing you in treating others in such inhumane manner.
With the Jesus ideal you won’t have the old threat theology backing your worst impulses to tribally exclude, dominate, or punitively harm others. This is about narrative transformation that amounts to death and rebirth, disintegration and reintegration around something entirely new and life-affirming, love-affirming.
Such fundamental transformation of narrative themes also goes to the root of human fears across history, our primal fears. Early shaman, then priests of later societies, on top of normal fears of harm from nature, they added the metaphysical fear of angry deity behind the natural world punishing us for our sins. Such was the core of early religion as an institution using fear to manipulate and control populations, an institution that validated the rise of elites in societies (priestly rulers), and the burden of religious conditions- i.e. religious belief systems, sacrifices/payments to priesthoods, demanded ritual and religious lifestyle, etc.
Further, add the fear of afterlife judgment and punishment in hell. This horrific threat theology goes to the deepest roots of all, to the related subconscious archetypes that are based on such theology, archetypes that still arouse feelings that many can hardly comprehend or express but that render people susceptible to ever new religious alarmism crusades. Note the many affirming the apocalyptic climate crusade, a profoundly religious crusade like all before it. So also, many continue to affirm the latest versions of apocalyptic millennialism in neo-Marxist crusades like far-left Woke Progressivism.
Threat theology, as primitive as the earliest versions, still lingers everywhere now in secularized versions like “vengeful Gaia, angry Planet/Mother earth, punitive Universe, and payback karma”.
The stunning new theology of Historical Jesus, his diamond insights on unconditional Ultimate Reality, overthrow entirely the old complex of bad religious ideas that have enslaved human consciousness for millennia. That consciousness-darkening background of deeply embedded archetypes is wiped away with his central theme of unconditional, once it is pulled out of the deforming context of Paul’s Christ myth.
Sources: General Search for Historical Jesus, Jesus Seminar research, Q Wisdom Sayings gospel research, research on the history of mythology and religion, etc.
A list of alternative themes for narratives (alternatives to counter the above bad ideas list): “Humanity’s worst ideas, better alternatives (Old story themes, new story alternatives),” Wendell Krossa
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=9533
The insanity never ends. And its becoming most egregious in the birthplace of modern liberal democracy, the original home of Classic Liberal freedoms and rights. Now this lunacy, Wendell Krossa
This also illustrates “populism as democracy” (Winston Marshall), where common people are fighting back for the restoration of basic liberal democracy freedoms and rights that the leftist elites are overthrowing with “far-left Woke Progressivism (framed also with DEI)” today. That is the new face of contemporary totalitarianism.
From Shellenberger’s Public site:
“Why Gen-Z men are revolting against the Left: What the arrest of 20-year-old Monty Toms reveals about the sociological roots of a gendered generational revolt”, Michael Shellenberger, July 11, 2025
https://www.public.news/p/why-gen-z-men-are-revolting-against
Shellenberger outlines the arrest of a young protester in London, for a free speech thought crime, Montgomery Toms.
Shellenberger says that Toms wasn’t “yelling. He wasn’t disruptive. He wasn’t surrounded by a mob or leading a march. He was standing alone, quietly, wearing a cardboard sandwich board with a handwritten message.” But 11 police officers surrounded him, handcuffed him and marched him into a police van.
He was then locked in solitary confinement for 9 hours, never charged with a crime and given bail conditions that forbid him entering Westminster in London, even if for work. Shellenberger states that the new public order laws in Britain are “a bureaucratic absurdity, a caricature of free speech principles”.
He then suggests that the incident with Toms illustrates a larger trend today, “the revolt of young men, particularly younger Gen Z men, against the cultural Left, one with massive social and political implications.”
Toms illustrates the reaction of young men against the anti-masculinity forces in Woke Progressivism much like the anti-masculinity that was exhibited by Barack Obama during the last presidential election where he scolded young black men for being sexist for not mindlessly just voting for Kamala Harris. The “ballless” (without male balls) Obama sounds very much like his haranguing wife on her deranged scold podcast. And then there is Tim Walz… ah, please, no more.
Shellenberger notes that Toms has a history of independent, critical thought and protest against authoritarian leftists. Toms said re his Covid protests earlier, “I didn’t comply. I didn’t wear the mask. I wouldn’t pretend to agree. And I watched people my age just fold. It was scary to me how easy it was to make them comply.”
Shellenberger frames Toms’ protest within a larger social trend of young men revolting against the anti-masculinity of Woke Progressivism.
“Across the UK and the West more broadly, younger Gen Z men are rejecting the script they were handed. They’re tired of being told that their masculinity is a pathology. They’re tired of being told they’re the villains of history. They’re tired of being told to be more like women.”
Returning to Toms’ arrest, Shellenberger concludes:
“In Britain, if someone perceives what you say as hateful, even if it breaks no law, police can log the statement on your permanent record. These entries can show up in background checks, affect employment, housing, and education. There is no trial. No defense. No process. Just an accusation and a bureaucratic mark that follows you for years…. in doing so, (British authorities confirm) what many young men already believe: that modern liberalism isn’t about tolerance anymore. It’s about obedience.
“In the end, Toms’ case should give hope: a culture that requires eleven officers to silence one young man with a cardboard sign has already lost the argument.”
So hard to comprehend and accept that England, the birthplace of modern liberal democracy has been reduced, by leftist Progressives, to this horrific illiberal deformity of liberalism today.